| Author | Message | ||
     Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 8 Registered: 05-2005 |
Are the places RF names at the end of Surfing Magazines on the DVD close to Brisbane ? Hey just had an idea, what about a geography topic for all places listed in GB's songs, especially those of us not in Oz. e.g. where is shield st, sheridan st, Queen St gives us the postcode/zipcode whatever and we can look 'em up on a multimap type software | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 160 Registered: 05-2005 |
Shield St is in Cairns. I was quietly thrilled to be there in 1992. | ||
| David Matheson Member Username: David_matheson Post Number: 45 Registered: 12-2004 |
Queen Street is in Brisbane. Bribie Island is about an hour north of Brisbane. 'Sunshine'may refer to the Sunshine Coast, an area a couple of hours north of Brisbane. Bells Beach is in Victoria: they have professional surfing competitions there. Angourie is on the New South Wales north coast, as is Byron (Byron Bay), which Robert sometimes refers to. The Darlinghurst of 'Darlinghurst Nights'is a bustling place near the centre of Sydney. Double Island Point mentioned in 'He Lives My Life'is in the Great Sandy National Park, a few hours north of Brisbane. The Derwent named in 'Mountains Near Dellray'probably refers to the Derwent River in Tasmania. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 9 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks guys, I know it might seem a bit "anorak" but I love stuff like that, helps expand things a bit. I found out recently, by chance (hey I don't research these things you know !)that the "Dip" in "Down the Dip" by Aztec is a pub called The Diplomat. Makes sense when you know these things... | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 10 Registered: 05-2005 |
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&GridE=145.77401&GridN=-16.9 2335&lon=145.77401&lat=-16.92335&search_result=CAIRNS%2C%20QLD&cidr_client=none& lang=&db=AU&keepicon=true&place=CAIRNS,+QLD&pc=&advanced=&state=&addr2=&client=p ublic&overviewmap=&addr3=cairns&scale=50000 | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 124 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'd love to live in Australia, although, I have never been there! There's something about it, that I have ssen in pics in mags and books and on the screen that I can't quite explain. In a fairly shallow way I love the thought of the scene in the inside cover of Calling from a country home... | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 11 Registered: 05-2005 |
know what you mean Spence, never having been to Australia it holds a similar fascination. I'm all too conscious about having that shallow "as it looks in the brochures" approach to another continent. I love Clive James and having read his autobiographies about growing up in Kogarah, Sydney I like the place names as they sound so un-European (Wooloomooloo etc !). The flip side is also true because Bill Bryson has a love of english town names and especially the London Tube map. Grant said somewhere about Mexican Postcard being a song about a country he has never visited. Somtimes, often times ? the dream is better than the reality. Stipe sang "Another Greenville, another magic mart" on Little America. Seems there are thousands of Greenvilles in the States. But then again every City in the western speaking world probably has a Queen St and not just by name ! I'll close as I'm rambling... | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 130 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wilson! I was once driving my car with Malcolm Ross (Josef K Aztec Camera) in it in Birmingham a few years ago and we were going down a dip on a Saturday morning and Jonathan Ross was on the radio and on came Down the dip!! | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 111 Registered: 05-2005 |
Malcolm was also in Orange Juice too wasnt he - a real Postcard slut!  did i dream this or did he also play with the go-betweens early on? | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 131 Registered: 05-2005 |
yeah he was. one of my favourite people in the world is Malcolm, great guitarist, great person, his wife is a gem too, Syuzen, she once sang Apple Bush on a Josef K Peel session, classic track, an Alice Cooper cover. I don't recollect Malcolm ever playing in The Gb's, though he was obviously close to them in the early days. Malcolm supported Rober Forstr a few years agon in London I believe. | ||
| Wilson Davey Member Username: Wilson Post Number: 17 Registered: 05-2005 |
Hey Spence, Tell Malcolm that SnakeCharmer should not have been relegated to a B side. Great song and one I could see RF covering with some panache. Can you get him to post on here ? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 166 Registered: 05-2005 |
I listened to Malcolm Ross doing a Beach Boys cover (forget which one) last night on the excellent Caroline Now! compilation from a few years ago. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 179 Registered: 03-2005 |
I too understand the Australian fascination. For a while I was even spending time on a Brisbane real estate site looking at pictures of old houses in Spring Hill or the other suburbs around Fortitude Valley. I've yet to actually go. There ARE a lot of Greenvilles in the U.S., mostly in the South. | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 48 Registered: 05-2005 |
I think that's why the Go Betweens are so great. As an Australian, they mention and name-check places you may actually get to without at least a 16 hour (America) or 23 hour (Europe) flight. They also talk about Australia and Australians as real people and not caricatures of what we're supposed to be. | ||
| Donat Member Username: Donat Post Number: 122 Registered: 11-2004 |
Bella Vista Terrace is in Paddington, an inner-city suburb of Brisbane. | ||
| Michael Leach Member Username: Mike_l Post Number: 13 Registered: 05-2005 |
And of course, Spring Hill Fair is an actual fair, held annually, in, erm, Spring Hill in Brisbane. Having grown up in Brisbane (now living in Melbourne) - its great to hear people OS relating to the sense of place in the songs. Ive always felt the songs to be about my town - its far less surprising to be a GBs fan, I guess, when you're from there. But you must recall, Cairns, which GM writes about a lot, is even further from Brisbane than Melbourne is! 1500 kms... or something... "the wind sweeps over the verandah, and Im your man" - now that captures something. | ||
| jerry hann Member Username: Jerry_h Post Number: 60 Registered: 07-2005 |
I got into the The Go-Betweens in the 80's and by started exploring some Australian culture from my London flat. it corresponded with reading some of Robert Drewe's books particularly the short stories which seemed to put into words the atmosphere the Go-betweens conveyed in their music. Yes the Sea and surfing were a common them but failed relationships as well.I've never been to Australia but romance may be better than the reality? |